Bimiirr Darrundaygu
Project Summary:
This project seeks to provide young people in Out of Home Care (OOHC) with a targeted, tailored and culturally safe intervention program and to evaluate its efficacy. It aims to develop and evaluate therapeutic child-based skills while enhancing carers’ capacity to meet the complex needs of Aboriginal children and young people in OOHC.
The proposed project has three main objectives:
- to review existing literature and programs to determine whether they are appropriate to support the needs of Aboriginal children in OOHC and their carers
- develop and document a targeted, tailored and culturally safe intervention program that supports the development of therapeutic child-based skills and encourages cultural connections and role modelling with Aboriginal children in OOHC , and
- evaluate the outcomes of this program on children’s emotion regulation, social skills, and connection to culture, and caregivers stress and care skills.
“Challenges regulating emotions underlie many neurodevelopmental and behavioural conditions and follow early life trauma. Children in OOHC often present with distress and challenges regulating their emotions. This project aims to review, develop, and evaluate a 12-week trauma informed emotion regulation skills program for Aboriginal children and adolescents in OOHC and their carer’s. We expect that the results from this study will guide therapeutic support services within the OOHC sector.”
– Dr Emily Hindman, Researcher, Psychologist, Clinical Services Manager and Project Lead
